Chapter 38
CHAPTER
MOM, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?”
A startled Judith Nash looked around at her daughter, who was standing in the second-floor hall of their home.
“Maggie, what are you still doing up?” said Judith, who was not looking pleased with this unexpected encounter.
“It’s one in the morning. Where have you been? I texted and called.”
“I…” Judith looked at her purse. “I guess I turned my phone off.”
“So where have you been?” Maggie persisted.
“Not that I need to account for my whereabouts with you, but I had dinner with a friend and we went back to her house and had a few drinks.”
“You had a few drinks and you drove home?”
Judith tensed. “You are not my mother, okay, Maggie? And I was not under the influence. I was fine. I had dinner and the drinks were spread over several hours.”
Maggie folded her arms over her chest. “What friend?”
“Excuse me?”
“What friend were you out with?”
“That is none of your business.”
“Was it Sally? Or Jean? Or Katherine Tucker?”
“I… I don’t have to answer that.”
“You don’t have to because I called all your friends looking for you. No one had heard from you. I thought you’d been in an accident.”
“Please don’t tell me you called your father in New York? He’s due back tomorrow.”
“I didn’t, because he would have probably run all the way home.” Maggie looked her mother over. “That’s a pretty clingy, low-cut dress for a night out with a girlfriend.” She took a whiff. “And that perfume? Really?”
Judith’s expression turned ugly. “I resent the hell out of what you’re implying.”
“Who said I’m implying?”
“Go to your room.”
“I’m not a child. You can’t make me.”
“Then I’m going to bed. I’m exhausted.”
Maggie stepped closer to her mother and drew in a fuller breath. “You might want to grab a shower first. To get the men’s cologne off. And the sweat.”
“Watch your mouth!” She pointed a finger at her daughter. “And if you’re even thinking of mentioning this… this nonsense to your father, well, you better think again.”
“What happened to you?” said Maggie, now looking like she might cry. “Don’t you love Dad anymore?”
“Of course I love him!” exclaimed a now-stricken Judith.
“Then what is all this about?”
“This is all a product of your overactive imagination,” her mother barked. “And I don’t want to hear another word about it.”
Maggie shouted, “He loves you. He dotes on you. He gives you everything you want and you do this to him! You don’t fucking deserve him!”
Judith slapped her daughter so hard on the cheek that it hurt her hand.
Maggie’s eyes filled with tears and she gasped, holding her injured face where the skin was already reddening.
“I… I,” said Judith, wavering. “Mag—”
She staggered off to her room, leaving Maggie staring after her.
A minute later Maggie heard the shower come on in her parents’ bathroom. She hurried back to her bedroom, slipped under the covers, pulled them over her head, and began to weep and shake.
In the shower a naked Judith slumped to the floor and let the water run over her. And she, too, started to cry.
I’m sorry, Maggie. I’m so sorry… Walter. So…
She turned to the side and threw up. Then Judith lay on the shower floor, her body curled tightly into a ball as she moaned and shook while the hot water streamed over her.